A different view of Thanksgiving

CHRISTINA STYAN, Hathaway News Service

Thursday

Nov 27, 2008 at 12:01 AM

DARTMOUTH — Surrounded by handmade Wampanoag baskets and feast bowls, Jonathan Perry traced the culture of his native people, The People of the First Light, and related some of the misconceptions surrounding the first Thanksgiving feast between the local Wampanoag and the newly-arrived Pilgrims.

DARTMOUTH — Surrounded by handmade Wampanoag baskets and feast bowls, Jonathan Perry traced the culture of his native people, The People of the First Light, and related some of the misconceptions surrounding the first Thanksgiving feast between the local Wampanoag and the newly-arrived Pilgrims.

Speaking at the New Bedford Rod and Gun Club in North Dartmouth, he linked a modern Thanksgiving pastime to a game once played by his native ancestors, a kind of football.

Before the Pilgrims came to America, native people played Pasuckaukohowog, a game similar to soccer or rugby, explained Mr. Perry. "We came to foot the ball," is the literal translation, he said.

The players painted their faces and upper bodies with a prominent color, and sometimes up to a hundred men played all day on a sandy beach, beginning early in the morning and ending with feasting in the evening. If there was a storm, the important game could be postponed.

"They played the game like a war, and carried it over until the next day. When the nations got together to play a game and decide the winner, the loser just went home," Mr. Perry said.

"Today, Thanksgiving is a special time people spend with their family; catch a football game, or spend time for traveling and connecting with folks they don't see," he suggested. The similarities are one link between modern society and the earlier native culture that once flourished here.

That history, said Mr. Perry, the assistant manager of the Wampanoag Indigenous Program at Plimoth Plantation and a member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe, is of the original Wampanoag Nation, which once stretched from Marshfield to the South Coast to Providence, along Cape Cod, including Nantucket, Gay Head Aquinnah, and the Elizabeth Islands, and of their descendants, who still honor some ancient principles that once ruled this land.

"We have an awareness and respect of earth's placement as we see the universe," Mr. Perry said. "Our People look to the future, and have an awareness of the present, and use past knowledge."

The native people celebrated many harvests according to the lunar phases, marking annual events such as the herring run and the strawberry moon. "Native folks, we have a harvest, it is a chance to travel, go to another native nation, or neighboring community," noted Mr. Perry. Months later, native people gave thanks for the rebirth of spring.

"Historically, harvest feasts are common worldwide. People celebrate a successful year, and get all the cousins to come. The thing you are harvesting in November is snow," he quipped.

The first Thanksgiving as a historical concept is recorded only with a brief mention of a harvest feast by the Pilgrims. Perry focused on Tisquantum's role in helping the Pilgrims survive their first year in New England. Known today as Squantem, he was kidnapped, enslaved in Spain, and returned to America years later, only to find his entire tribe had been wiped out by plague brought by the European explorers.

"It was not terribly unusual to take some native people" while exploring along the coast, Mr. Perry said of the arrival of Europeans, which soon gave natives good cause "not to trust the newcomers from England," he said.

After the Pilgrims signed a treaty with Massasoit, a Wampanoag named Hobbamack, who spoke some English, lived with the settlers just outside of the walls of Plymouth. Today, he is remembered for his key role in the first Thanksgiving, along with Samoset and Squantem, who is best known for showing the English how to plant corn. "Corn was a big thing for the English, and prior to trading they would steal it" from native stores, said Mr. Perry.

Near harvest time, he speculates Massasoit came to Plymouth with about 90 men. The English would not have invited native people to the first Thanksgiving feast, but Massasoit sent men out to hunt and bring back deer. They are assumed to have brough back enough game to feast for three days, taking some time out to play some field games, he pointed out.

Modern-day Thanksgiving has evolved into a single day of family feasting, but suggests, "We were lucky; we put aside work and could feast for weeks. We would feast on items that were abundant that year. Today, we are lucky if we can take one day off."

Native Americans in Massachusetts lived in simple farmer-hunter bands, with few societal constraints and little concern with material things. In 1600, the typical native family's chores equaled about 20 work hours a week, giving the family time to learn important lessons from their elders about hunting, earth sciences, and the art of living well.

"Due to the fluid nature of our society, we didn't categorize our time. We did not have to budget our time. The English observed native men sitting around at noon, and called them lazy. Those men probably got up early fished, prepared the fish, put away the boat, and carried several tons of fish back home, so a nap might be in order," remarked Mr. Perry with a smile.

The winters were harsh on Martha's Vineyard, where the earth essentially shut down with the cold. In winter, families stayed close to home, working only a few hours a day to conserve energy. Maybe the only physically demanding work was hunting or carrying a heavy load of firewood.

With plenty of free extra time, the Wampanoag created pottery, wove baskets, chipped projectile points, or worked with bits of copper for spring trading.

Mr. Perry lamented the fact that the only day of the year people remember native people is on Thanksgiving. He said he wished it were otherwise, that he had been born at an earlier time, and had the living knowledge of his ancestors; and a better link to the stories of the long ago. Together with his sister Elizabeth, he continues to research their native traditions, while finding the time to create soapstone smoking pipes and white and purple quahog jewelry, to give honor to the handicrafts his ancestors once created for those who are to follow them.

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